The subject matter herein relates generally to textile connectors for an electronic textile.
Electronic textiles are known and used as wearable technology, such as intelligent clothing or smart clothing, which allows for the incorporation of built-in technological elements in textiles and/or clothes. Electronic textiles may be used in many different applications, including sports training data acquisition, for health monitoring of persons or patients, for first responder (e.g. fire and police) or soldier worn electronics systems, and the like. Electronic textiles are typically fabrics that enable monitoring, computing, digital components and electronics to be embedded in or worn on the textiles. Electronic textiles typically have conductors and electronic devices embedded in or provided on the garments. Some electronic textiles have electronic functions incorporated directly on the textile fibers.
Known electronic textiles are not without disadvantages. For example, attaching or terminating electronic components to the embedded conductors is difficult to accomplish. For example, because the textile material is movable and stretchable, the conductors move and stretch with the material. Reliable electrical connection to such conductors is difficult. Additionally, many conventional electronic textiles incorporate multiple conductors that need to be independently terminated to corresponding electronic devices. Each conductor has a separate connector, leading to increased part count and increased assembly time.